Piezoelectric device and acousto-electric transducer and method for manufacturing the same

ABSTRACT

A lens shape piezoelectric device thinner than the manufacture limit thickness, which is conventionally difficult to manufacture, and a method for manufacturing the same. The piezoelectric device has a oscillation part of at least two steps where one side thereof is planar and opposite side is thickest at the peripheral holding portion and thinner toward the central portion. A piezoelectric element of another mode has a oscillation part of at least two steps where the peripheral holding portion is thickest on both sides and the thickness decreases toward the central portion. In these piezoelectric devices, at least one side of the thinnest central portion of the oscillation part has a convex lens shape. A pair of electrodes are vacuum deposited in the center these oscillation parts on both sides, and a gold wire is led as a lead wire from each electrode.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] This invention is related to the piezoelectric device and acousto-electric transducer and the method for manufacturing the same, which enable the characteristic frequency to be extremely higher.

BACKGROUND ART

[0002] Quartz oscillators (resonators) as one of piezoelectric devices are used for a wide variety of application fields such as fundamental frequency generators of communication apparatus and sensing instrumentation and clock sources of general computers, Office Automation information equipments, home appliances, and so forth. It has been required for those characteristic frequencies to be higher by decreasing the thickness of their oscillators (resonators) in order to achieve the high performance of those information processing and transfer capabilities. Also the lens-line type finishing was proposed to get higher quality oscillators (resonators), and these performances were accomplished for those relatively lower frequency domains.

[0003] Quartz oscillators are the essential electronic devices for digital machines such as communication equipments, computers, and so forth. It is demanded for those oscillators to higher the primary oscillation frequency by decreasing the thickness in order to achieve the high performance of the information processing and transfer abilities. Especially for the mobile communication, the fundamental frequency is required to be higher for the small sizing and power saving management.

[0004] Quartz oscillators have been generally manufactured by the mechanical polishing and chemical wet etching processes. The former polishing shows the fine surface finish, however it cannot machine in lower than 30,u m. The latter etching has the advantage of decreasing deteriorated surface in principle, but it has the limitation of thickness due to the etching channel generation and so forth. On the other hand, the reactive ion etching (RIE), inductive coupled plasma etching (ICP) or plasma-etching process (abbreviated as chemical dry etching) makes the damaged surface layer, however the dry etching allows the device to be thin without the inconvenient surface roughness.

[0005] The novel mass-productive manufacturing method of high frequency quartz oscillator is developed, by combining efficiently the advantages of these processes. However the problem to thin those oscillators (resonators) by dual-face polishing method (dual-face polishing machine) is presently to be incapable to be thinner than 30.0 μm (=55.6 MHz).

[0006] Furthermore, when oscillators were finishing in lens shape, it was extremely difficult to make the curved surface on the thin plate, and there existed no machining method of mass production with low cost.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

[0007] Thereafter the present invention to solve these problems shall make possible to manufacture the lens shape piezoelectric device, which is thinner than the thickness limitation with the conventional method.

[0008] In order to solve previously mentioned problems, the piezoelectric device of present invention has one flat surface, and the another side has the thickest peripheral holding portion and the central oscillation part at least with two steps, which one side is decreasing the thickness toward the central region. Also another type of piezoelectric device has the thickest peripheral holding portion and the central oscillation part at least with two steps, which both sides are decreasing the thickness toward the central region.

[0009] The oscillating part at the thinnest center of piezoelectric device is in convex lens shape at least for the one surface.

[0010] Furthermore the present invention enables the piezoelectric device to be manufactured to make the first oscillating part to be seen toward the crystal orientation of said piezoelectric material at the central part of nearly rectangular quartz blank, and afterward to make the second oscillating part not to be seen toward the crystal orientation of said piezoelectric material.

[0011] Furthermore, an acousto-electric transducer of present invention is manufactured so as to make the final shape profile at both end surfaces of piezoelectric rod, and to make the end surface of above stick as homogeneously and relatively decreasing the thickness toward the central direction of said rod in the similar geometry shape by the dry etching process such as RIE without machining the outer wall thickness of said rod. Then the oscillating part at the inner central region of said cylindrical rod is made the oscillation device with the final thickness and profile.

[0012] A pair of electrodes is vacuum deposited in the center of these vibrating parts on both sides, and a gold wire is led as a lead wire from each electrode.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0013]FIG. 1 illustrates the flow chart of manufacturing process for the present invention.

[0014]FIG. 2 illustrates the design diagram of forming the convex lens shape of piezoelectric device for the present invention.

[0015]FIG. 3 illustrates a characteristic diagram of reactance-frequency for the thick quartz resonator which blank is AT-cut.

[0016]FIG. 4 illustrates a characteristic oscillation diagram of reactance-frequency for the thick quartz resonator which blank is AT-cut, and the plane and longitude diagrams of single-sided inverted mesa type quartz resonator with one step.

[0017]FIG. 5 illustrates a characteristic diagram of reactance-frequency for the thin quartz resonator which blank is AT-cut.

[0018]FIG. 6 illustrates a measurement diagram of quartz resonator shape by an interference microscope.

[0019]FIG. 7 illustrates a characteristic diagram of reactance-frequency for the thin quartz resonator which blank is AT-cut.

[0020]FIG. 8 illustrates a graph to show the level difference (P-V) between the peak and valley versus the changing quartz resonator thickness.

[0021]FIG. 9 shows an inverse graph of curvature radius in a convex lens shape to form single-sided inverse mesa type with one step.

[0022]FIG. 10 shows a roughness graph of the central concave surface part for the single-sided inverse mesa type with one step.

[0023]FIG. 1 shows a cross section for a real example of present acousto-electric transducer.

[0024]FIG. 12 is an upper surface diagram of the real example proposed above.

[0025]FIG. 13 is a cross section to show the machining method proposed above.

[0026]FIG. 14 is a side diagram to show the machining tools for a real example proposed above.

[0027]FIG. 15 is the side and A-A cross section diagrams to show the whetstone for a real example proposed above.

[0028]FIG. 16 is a cross section diagram to show a real example proposed above.

[0029]FIG. 17 illustrates a side and plane diagrams to show another whetstone for a real example proposed above.

[0030] FIGS. 18-20 respectively illustrate cross sections of other machining tools for the real examples proposed above.

[0031]FIG. 21 illustrates the side and upper diagrams to show the manufacturing charts of the machining tools for a real example proposed above.

[0032]FIG. 22 illustrates the enlarged side and upper diagrams to show the manufacturing charts of the machining tools proposed above.

[0033] FIGS. 23-30 respectively illustrate cross sections of oscillators (resonators) to show those manufacturing processes for acousto-electric transducers and other applications of the present invention

[0034]FIG. 31 is a front diagram of state, which has gold lead from electrode in this invention.

[0035] FIGS. 32-54 respectively show upper and cross section diagrams of oscillators (resonators) for real examples in this invention.

[0036]FIG. 55 shows a shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 1 with two steps single-sided concave type, which is measured by an interference microscope (laser interferometer).

[0037]FIG. 56 illustrates a shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 1 with two steps single-sided grooved type, which is enlarged by an interference microscope.

[0038]FIG. 57 illustrates a photograph (Normanski micrograph or differential interference micrometer) of manufactured quartz resonator sample 1 with two steps single-sided grooved type in FIGS. 55 and 56.

[0039]FIGS. 58 and 59 respectively illustrate upper diagrams and cross section diagrams of real quartz oscillator (resonator) samples in the present invention.

[0040]FIG. 60 illustrates a shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz resonator sample 2 with two steps single sided concave type, which is studied by an interference microscope.

[0041]FIG. 61 illustrates a shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz resonator sample 2 in FIG. 60 with two steps single-sided concave type, which is enlarged by an interference microscope.

[0042]FIG. 62 illustrates a photograph (Normanski micrograph) of manufactured quartz resonator sample 2 with two steps single-sided concave type in FIGS. 60 and 61.

[0043]FIGS. 63 and 64 respectively illustrate upper diagrams and cross section diagrams of real quartz oscillator (resonator) samples in the present invention.

[0044]FIG. 65 illustrates a surface-shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 3 with two steps double-sided grooved type, which is studied by an interference microscope.

[0045]FIG. 66 illustrates a surface-shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 3 in FIG. 65 with two steps double-sided grooved type, which is enlarged by an interference microscope.

[0046]FIG. 67 illustrates a rear surface measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 3 in FIG. 65 with two steps double-sided grooved type, which is studied by an interference microscope.

[0047]FIG. 68 illustrates a rear surface measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 3 in FIG. 63 with two steps double-sided grooved type, which is enlarged by an interference microscope.

[0048]FIG. 69 illustrates a photograph (Normanski micrograph) of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 3 with two steps double-sided grooved type in FIGS. 65 and 66.

[0049]FIG. 70 illustrates upper diagrams and cross section diagrams of real quartz oscillator sample in the present invention.

[0050]FIG. 71 illustrates a surface-shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 4 with two steps double-sided concave type, which is studied by an interference microscope.

[0051]FIG. 72 illustrates a rear shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 4 in FIG. 71 with two steps double-sided grooved type, which is studied by an interference microscope.

[0052]FIG. 73 illustrates a surface photograph (Normanski micrograph) of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 4 with two steps double-sided grooved type in FIG. 71.

[0053]FIG. 74 illustrates a rear surface photograph (Normanski micrograph) of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 4 with two steps double-sided grooved type in FIG. 72.

[0054]FIG. 75 illustrates upper diagrams and cross section diagrams of real quartz sample in the present invention.

[0055]FIG. 76 illustrates a surface-shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 5 with two steps single-sided grooved type, which is studied by an interference microscope.

[0056]FIG. 77 illustrates a surface photograph (Normanski micrograph) of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 5 with two steps single-sided grooved type in FIG. 76.

[0057]FIG. 78 illustrates a surface-shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 6 with conventional one step double-sided inverse mesa type, which is studied by interference microscope made by Hoffman in USA.

[0058]FIG. 79 illustrates a surface shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 6 in FIG. 78, which is enlarged by an interference microscope.

[0059]FIG. 80 illustrates a rear-surface shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 6 in FIG. 78, which is studied by an interference microscope.

[0060]FIG. 81 illustrates a rear-surface shape measurement diagram of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 6 in FIG. 78, which is enlarged by an interference microscope.

[0061]FIG. 82 illustrates a surface photograph (Normanski micrograph) of manufactured quartz oscillator sample 6 in FIG. 78.

[0062]FIGS. 83 and 84 respectively illustrate characteristic oscillation diagrams of reactance-frequency for the thinnest quartz oscillator which blank is AT-cut, and the plane and longitude diagrams of single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator with two steps.

[0063]FIGS. 85 and 86 illustrates a characteristic oscillation diagram of reactance-frequency for the thin quartz resonator which blank is AT-cut, and the plane and longitude diagrams of double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator with two steps.

[0064]FIG. 87 illustrates a characteristic oscillation diagram of reactance-frequency of manufactured quartz oscillator with AT-cut, and conventional one step double-sided inverse mesa type, which is studied by interference microscope made by Hoffman in USA.

[0065]FIGS. 88 and 89 illustrate dimension diagrams of manufactured sample as three steps single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator.

[0066]FIGS. 90 and 91 illustrate dimension diagrams of manufactured sample as three steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator.

[0067]FIG. 92 illustrates a machining sample pressurized from both sides by dual face polishing machine for three steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator in FIG. 88(f).

[0068]FIG. 93 shows a cross section diagram of another sample with plural steps in this invention.

[0069]FIGS. 94 and 95 illustrate surface profile measurement diagrams of manufactured sample 2, which is pressurized from both sides by dual face polishing machine (polishing table) for two steps single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator.

[0070]FIG. 96 is a chart to show a parallelism error of parallel plate.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0071]FIG. 1 shows a manufacturing method for the present invention. At first the quartz blank 100 (FIG. 1(a)) is cut to 50 μm from artificial quartz, then a part of one side (upper surface) is solved by etching with hydrogen fluoride, and a concave groove 101 is made (FIG. 1(b)). The oscillation part is generated by the thin layer between this pit 101 and the lower surface of quartz blank 100, the remaining part becomes the frame 102, which is attached by electrodes. These are same as the conventional manufacturing methods.

[0072] As the next step, the whole lower surface is processed by a dry etching as ion etching (hereafter ion etching process) with hydrogen fluoride, and the quartz blank 100 becomes thinner FIG. 1(c). This ion etching process is to sputter silicone atoms in silicone dioxide at the surface of quartz blank 100, when the electric voltage is impressed to fluorine atoms and accelerate ions after the molecular bondages are cut in the plasma state.

[0073] As mentioned previously, it is not possible for the sole chemical wet etching to decrease the thickness thinner than 20 μm. Afterwards the ion etching process will decrease the thickness down to approximately 10.3 μm.

[0074] The target of thickness is 10 μm. However it is unable for the ion etching only to achieve the target. The ion etching can decrease the thickness, however this has the disadvantage to make the ion-damaged layer, which is unknown defect with non-crystalline component at the mono-crystalline surface, since the ion etching process uses atomic collisions. The thickness of the layer is approximately 0.2-0.3 μm.

[0075] Therefore we employed the mechanical polishing. The dual face polishing machine does the job to polish the final processing (FIG. 1(d)), and it machines the blank down to 10.3 μm with the surface layer 0.3 μm. The dual face polishing machine structure is similar to a planet gear. At first the quartz plate 100 is set to the steel carrier 106, which corresponds to the planet gear and rotates with axis-rotation at the same time, and the blank 100 is sandwiched between the lower fixed table 104 and the upper table 103. Both fixed tables are patched by foamed poly-urethane polishing pad 105.

[0076] There after cerium oxide whetstone powder is streaming with water, the quartz blank 100 held by carrier 106 rotates around own axis between the lower and upper table 103, 104, also the upper table 103 rotates, then the quartz 100 can be polished.

[0077] As shown in FIG. 1(e), the lower surface of quartz blank 100 becomes curved in convex lens shape. This lens shape is known to be efficient to generate more steady oscillation, since spurious oscillation (secondary vibration) as the erroneous reaction for electronics does no appear.

[0078]FIG. 2 will show how the blank becomes in convex lens shape.

[0079] The polished quantity is proportional to the polishing pressure. The frame 102 of concave quartz blank 100 after the ion etching is strongly pressurized to be polished between the upper table 103 and lower table 104, and the grooved part for oscillation is slightly impressed only by the lower table 104. Furthermore the polishing force at the central region of the concaved structure part 101 is weaker (FIG. 2(a)). Therefore the polished mass is at minimum at the center of the concave part 101, it becomes maximum at the frame part 102, and the polished quantity among these parts changes with a curvature like a part of sphere. As the consequence, we finished the quartz oscillator in the convex lens shape (FIG. 2(b)). The thickest central part of the lens is thin as 10 μm.

[0080] As understood above, the dual polishing machine cuts only 0.3 μm. This small polishing enables the damaged layer to be removed and shaped in a convex lens shape. In other words, the chemical etching and dry etching process corresponds to the coarse machining, and the dual face polishing one corresponds to the fine one.

[0081] The combination of these polishing processes in this invention makes the piezoelectric device thinner than the conventional one, and also the oscillation part in a convex lens shape makes it in a steady electric vibration without the spurious one.

[0082] This invention presents the manufacturing method of high frequency quartz oscillator with efficient combination of chemical wet etching (abbreviated as chemical etching), reactive ion etching (RIE), inductive coupled plasma etching (dry etching) and mechanical polishing. In the consequence we could manufacture the high frequency quartz oscillator in a plano-convex type with general dual face polishing machine, when the quartz blank was in one step single-sided inverted mesa type.

[0083]FIG. 3(a) illustrates a reactance-frequency characteristic example of quartz oscillator, which is made by RIE and ion milling (or plasma etching). There exists the spurious peak near the primary peak at the resonance frequency. This is thought to be due to the ion damage of the dry etching process. After the dry etched surface was manually polished, the spurious peaks were removed as shown in FIG. 3(b), the electric property was improved. Therefore the ion-damaged layer of dry etching process was found to be extremely thin as 0.3 μm, and this could be removed the mechanical polishing process.

[0084] In order to mass-produce quartz blanks in one step single sided inverse mesa type by chemical etching, quartz wafers were masked and chemically etched. The shape is shown in FIG. 4(a). The oscillating pat of 73.4 μm thick quartz wafer was chemically etched down to 32.68 μm, the depth of etched pit was ultimately deep with acceptable surface roughness.

[0085] A reactance-frequency property of this quartz blank is seen in FIG. 4(b). This is similar to that of dry etching as shown in FIG. 3(a). In order to achieve more high frequency, the dry etching process of the mechanical polishing process with the dual face polishing machine was employed to decrease the thickness. Here before the ion-damaged layer must be removed, the surface side of dry etching was selected to be the planer surface of quartz blank in single-sided inverse mesa type. This RIE processing condition was the standard one. It is possible for the ion damage to be decreased by small RF power and high pressure. However this means to slower the ion etching rate, and the first dry etching was done in the high efficient mode, and the third one was done in the low damage condition. By the way the removed mass was controlled by the processing time of the first dry etching. FIG. 5 shows the reactance-frequency of the machined blank after the series of above processing. After these processing, four machined blanks were got as one chemical etching and three dry etchings.

[0086]FIG. 6 shows the polishing condition and the mechanical polishing result. The quartz blank in a single-sided inverse mesa type with one step after the previous process was polished by the dual-face polishing machine. In this case, it was polished by the conventional processing condition. However two upper polishing plates were made from iron and aluminum to study the damage to the thin oscillation part and the effect of the shape. When the upper polishing plate is made from iron, the pressure to quartz is 1.8 times stronger than aluminum.

[0087] When the mechanical polishing was executed with the dual face polishing machine, the blank could be machined without any fear of the first problem to break the thin oscillation part. The second target to form the shape was successfully accomplished as shown in FIG. 6. This FIG. 6 illustrates the measured result of the shape when the inference microscope was used to observe the flat surface of quartz oscillation part in the single-sided inverse mesa type with one step. Then the oscillation part was found to be protruding in a convex lens shape. This shape is apparently spherical, and the opposite side is basically planar. Therefore, although the dual face polishing machine is designed to make planar surface, this machine can make the single-sided convex quartz oscillator, when the polished material is the quartz blank I the single-sided inverse mesa type.

[0088] The principle of this shaping mechanism is seen as follows. When quartz blank in one step single-sided inverse mesa type with thin oscillation part is impresses the polishing pressure, the thin part is distorted toward the cavity direction and this part cannot be substantially polished. After the polishing process is finished and the polishing pressure is relieved, the thin part (which is distorted toward the pit) rebounds to the opposite side, and this shape becomes the protruded lens shape.

[0089]FIG. 7 illustrates a characteristic diagram of acoustic reactance-frequency for four blanks and two machining pressures. The electric property (a) after the polishing process remarkably improved compared to that (b) before the polishing process, and this can oscillate in a high frequency. The spurious resonance before the polishing process (b) is eliminated by the polishing process, and the sharp resonance curve is observed. However, if this thickness becomes too thin or the polishing pressure becomes too strong, the spurious resonance appears, although the primary peak remains. There exists an optimum pressure and aperture/thickness ratio.

[0090]FIG. 8 illustrates the form and surface roughness as a function of the resonator thickness, i.e. the changing graph to show the level difference (P−V) between the peak and valley at the central oscillation part (1.44×1.31 mm) versus the quartz resonator thickness. FIG. 9 shows the inverse of finished curvature radius in convex lens shape as a function of the thickness. Since FIG. 8 is identical to FIG. 9 in cases of aluminum fixed table, but are different from iron table, the shape is thought to be pure spherical for Al and distorted one for Fe. On the other hand, the concave curvature of quartz oscillator increased when the thickness increased in one step single-sided inverse mesa type. This means the machining distortion rate when the convex lens shape was formed at the planar surface. The electric property will be improved when the optimum condition is chosen for the polishing and heat processing rates.

[0091]FIG. 10 shows the roughness at the concave central part versus the thickness. The free whetstone powder changes the roughness even where the polishing pad does not touch. For the chemical etching process, the roughness was Ra 2.6 nm, it deteriorated to Ra 7 nm where the typical concave and convex stripes appeared due to the chemical polishing. This roughness will be relieved, when the ion damaged layer is cut by the mechanical polishing in 0.3-0.4 μm thickness, after the concave part (one step single-sided inverse mesa type or one step double-sided inverse mesa type) is formed by dry etching process.

[0092] Also FIG. 10 shows that the property of one step double-sided inverse mesa type was demonstrated to be improved by dual-face polishing machine, same as the one step single-sided inverse mesa type, after the blank was processed by the dry etching.

[0093] Based on these results, the electrically high performance quartz oscillator was proved to be made above 334 MHz high frequency, when the aperture thickness ratio (d/t) was from 50 to 150 (optimum 80).

[0094] The following theme concerns the acousto-electric transducer as an application of the piezoelectric devise in this invention.

[0095] While a conventional detection and prediction of earthquake was executed by ocean observation, underground structure probe, earth magnetic observation, ground movement measurements between two points with GPS and Laser, and so forth, acoustic wave observation due to the earthquake and Tsunami will be one of these detection and prediction. A focused microphone can transform the acoustic wave to electric signal, which is convenient to record and analyze, but it is difficult to detect the acoustic wave at the specific frequency due to picking up noises.

[0096] FIGS. 11 from (a) to (e) illustrate variously executed examples of acoustoelectric transducer of piezoelectric device in this invention. In FIG. 11, cylinders 21 and 54 are made from piezoelectric material of mono-crystalline as quartz and lithium niobium oxide or other ceramics as barium titan oxide. In FIG. 11a pressure receiver 22 is located at the center of cylinders 21 and 54, two electrodes 23 and 24 are vaporized by metal on the pressure receiver, gold lead wires 26 are pasted to electrodes 23 and 24 by electrically conductive adhesive, the amplifier is connected between electrodes 23 and 24 to measure the inductive voltage. (Electrodes 23, 24 and amplifier 25 are illustrated only in FIG. 11(a).) FIG. 11(a) is bi-convex type, (b) is bi-concave type, (c) is planar, (d) is convex-concave type, and (e) is plano-convex type. As seen FIG. 11(a), room A is formed by two plugs 55 to seal the inside of cylinder 21, and room B is made to seal the cylinder 54. Both room A and B are de-pressurized (if possible vacuum or inert gas filling), and both cylinders 21 and 54 catch acoustic wave along parallel and vertical axes. This structure allows the pressure receiver 22 to catch signal intensively compared to the case without cylinders 21 and 54. Then we made the precise pressure censor, since the pressure receiver 22 can easily hear the external vibration with slender cylinders 21 and 54. When the cylinders are not evacuated, inert gas must be filled.

[0097]FIG. 12 shows the upper surface diagram of acousto-electric transducer in FIG. 11(a) and (b), the hole or space part 47 is formed at the pressure plate 22. Then the vibration at the left cylinder 21 and right one 54 moves freely from the part A to B and vice versa, and the vibration at A resonates with B at the central part. Consequently the pressure receiver 22 at the central part vibrates more strongly, when there is the hole or space 47. By the way there exists a specific good case without the hole or space 47.

[0098] In this paragraph, the method, which was proposed in the previous invention by this applicant, is shown to explain the mechanical formation of the pressure receiver 22. In the fundamental method, the circular rod 30, which is made from a piezoelectric material as quartz, barium titan oxide, lithium niobium or other ceramics and so on as shown in FIG. 13, is held by a chuck 31 of polishing machine as a lathe. The tool holder 34, which has a freely rotating whetstone with diamond powder on the surface, keeps to be fixed by the tool holder 34. The whetstone 32 is spherical to be cut at the opposite side as seen in FIG. 14, and this is freely held rotating by the axis holder 36 at the tip of the holding arm 35. At the outer part there are V shape grooves 32 a as shown in FIG. 15(a) and the A-A enlarged diagram FIG. 15(b), one inner wall of groove 32 a is directional to the surface at the central part. This whetstone 32 is rotated in high speed by air jet stream, which is generated by air nozzle 40 to the tangential direction (preferably 8˜50 rpm), the polished blank is slowly cut (for example 1 μm/min). During the polishing time a jet nozzle 41 ejects water, cools the whetstone 32, and wipes out the polished waste. When the whetstone 32 drives to rotate, the circular rod 30 is rotated around the axis as shown in FIG. 13, and it becomes circular or circular hole by the whetstone 32.

[0099] Also when the polishing surface of pressured surface 22 is convex as shown in FIG. 16, a dram type whetstone 22′ is used as seen in FIG. 17((a) is the front view and (b) is the flat view). When the polishing surface of pressured surface 22 is flat, a flat type whetstone 32″ is used as seen in FIG. 17(c). Otherwise, the whetstone 32, which is much smaller than the hole diameter as shown in FIG. 18, rotates along the curved surface of pressured surface 22 with the same machining tool 33 in FIG. 14 of NC machine.

[0100] At the same time, a chuck 31 rotates and polishes the pressured surface with a circular rod 30. Also the tool to make the hole or space part 47 is a whetstone 32″ in FIG. 17(d), which does not cut the holding part 47 and machines the hole or space part 47. Of course the tool to make the hole or space part 47 can be a conventional drill, which is electrically gilt by diamonds.

[0101] Also the circular hole of machining tool can be the usual rotating one around the axis, for example, a spherical whetstone in FIG. 19 or disk type one in FIG. 20. After the whetstone 32 has done the coarse machining, the polishing whetstone 32″ (instead of the whetstone 32), which is made from felt or buff and so forth, can do the fine lapping process. This whetstone 32″″ of felt or buff with grooves 32 a can be rotated by air jet stream, which is generated by air nozzle 40 as for the whetstone 32, and it can easily do the polishing step.

[0102]FIGS. 21 and 22 illustrate manufacturing charts of the cutting and polishing machines which structure is shown in FIG. 14. The diameter of really made whetstone 32 is 20 mm, and the depth of groove 32(a) is 1 mm. The following measured figures are the rotation number of whetstone 32 and air pressure, when the air nozzle 40 of cutting and polishing machine with 16 grooves ejects air to the tangential periphery direction of whetstone 40.

[0103] {circle over (1)} Air pressure is 0.5 atmosphere, and rotation of whetstone 32 is about 12,200 rpm.

[0104] {circle over (2)} Air pressure is 1.0 atmosphere, and rotation of whetstone 32 is about 22,000 rpm.

[0105] {circle over (3)} Air pressure is 2.0 atmosphere, and rotation of whetstone 32 is about 37,500 rpm.

[0106] {circle over (4)} Air pressure is 3.0 atmosphere, and rotation of whetstone 32 is about 47,800 rpm.

[0107] {circle over (5)} Air pressure is 4.0 atmosphere, and rotation of whetstone 32 is about 50,000 rpm, which is the bearing limitation.

[0108] Also, instead of the cutting whetstone 32 to set to the cutting and polishing machine in FIGS. 21 and 22, we can use a polishing whetstone in FIG. 17(e), which is made from iron, aluminum, metal as cupper, buff, felt, glass, plastics, ceramics or others. The machining method in FIG. 13, which uses this polishing whetstone 32″″ and polishing agent as diamond paste, cerium oxide, alumina, GC or others, can cut and polish piezoelectric material as quartz in various shapes in FIG. 11 at the same time. It is the reason for the polishing machine to cut and polish at the same time, since the whetstone 32″″ in FIG. 17(e) can easily rotate up to 50,000 rpm with the bearing limit. As this can be efficiently done only with the polishing process, this method, which uses this polishing whetstone 32″″ of felt, buff, iron, or others, can cut and polish piezoelectric material as extremely thin quartz at the same time.

[0109] The above paragraph explains the manufacturing method, which was previously invented by us, and the following introduces newly invented acousto-electric transducer.

[0110] At first, we will explain the formation method of convex lens type pressure receiver 22 (oscillation surface) in FIG. 23 at the center of piezoelectric material in a hollow cylindrical shape in FIG. 11(a).

[0111] (a) The first product, the target of which is to form the convex lens shape 20 a, is made from both ends of cylindrical piezoelectric material 20 by means of mechanical polishing, etching process, or others.

[0112] (b) Only a cylindrical part of the first product in the convex lens shape is processed by the dry etching (RIE or CIP process), other parts are not etched. This process can be executed by setting the ring mask, which is made from glass, quartz, tungsten, nickel, pure iron, plastic or others, on the end of the cylindrical piezoelectric material 20.

[0113] (c) This process continues to the central part of the piezoelectric material 20 in FIG. 23(c).

[0114] (d) After the dry etching process reaches the predetermined length of central part, the same dry etching process is undertook from the opposite surface. In practice, this is done by inverting the piezoelectric material 20, not by moving the dry etching machine.

[0115] (e) As shown in FIG. 23(e), after the convex lens shape is formed at the central part of piezoelectric material 20, the ion-damaged layer, which is generated by the dry etching process in 0.2 μm-0.3 μm depth, is removed by the mechanical polishing method. Then we have the oscillator (resonator) with electrically excellent performance, since the lens shape of ring support type is formed at the cylindrical central part as shown in FIG. 23(f).

[0116]FIG. 24 illustrates the machining stage to process the pressure receiver (oscillating surface), which one side is in a convex lens shape and another one is flat.

[0117]FIG. 25 illustrates the machining stage to process the pressure receiver (oscillating surface), which one side is in a convex lens shape and another one is concave.

[0118]FIG. 26 illustrates the machining stage to process the pressure receiver (oscillating surface), which both sides are flat

[0119]FIG. 27 illustrates another machining process of hollow cylindrical oscillator. The successive engineering stage is shown as follows.

[0120] (a) The first product, the target of which is to form the convex lens shape 20 a, is made from both ends of cylindrical piezoelectric material 20 by means of mechanical polishing, etching process, or others.

[0121] (b) Only a cylindrical part of the first product in the convex lens shape is processed by the dry etching (RIE or CIP process), other parts are not etched. This process can be executed by setting a hollow cylinder 52, which is smaller than the hollow cylinder 20 and made from glass, quartz, tungsten, nickel, pure iron, plastic, or others, on the end of the cylindrical piezoelectric material 20. Then the dry etching is processed simultaneously to the inner and outer surface of piezoelectric hollow cylinder 52. At the same time, the end surface of the cylinder 52 is shaven.

[0122] (c) This process continues to the central part of the piezoelectric material 20 in FIG. 27(c).

[0123] (d) After the dry etching process reaches the predetermined length of central part, the same dry etching process is undertook from the opposite surface. In practice, this is done by inverting the piezoelectric material 20, not by moving the dry etching machine.

[0124] (e) As shown in FIG. 27(e), after the convex lens shape is formed at the central part of piezoelectric material 20, the ion-damaged layer, which is generated by the dry etching process in 0.2 μm˜0.3 μm depth, is removed by the mechanical polishing method. Then we have the oscillator (resonator) with electrically excellent performance, since the lens shape of ring support type is formed at the cylindrical central part, and a lens shape in FIG. 27(f) is formed at the central part of hollow cylinder, we get the oscillator (resonator), which contains the holding part in a ring-support shape and is electrically excellent.

[0125] Although FIG. 27 shows the example to get the bi-convex lens shape, other shapes of oscillator in those arbitrary shapes can be made also by processing to keep the initial shape.

[0126] The following paragraph introduces a processing method to make the convex lens shape oscillator (resonator), which is connected to an extremely thin connector.

[0127]FIGS. 28 and 29 show the processing method, and this is explained as follows.

[0128] (1) The first product, the target of which is to form the convex lens shape 20 a, is made from both ends of thick piezoelectric plate 20 by means of mechanical polishing, etching process, or others.

[0129] (2) Only a cylindrical part of the first product in the convex lens shape is processed by the dry etching, other parts are not etched. This process can be executed by setting a hollow cylindrical auxiliary tool 50 (on the top of the first product), which is smaller than the hollow cylinder 20 and made from glass, quartz, tungsten, nickel, pure iron, plastic or others, and the surface of the tool 50 and the both ends are shaven by the dry etching at the same time or successively (step one end in this sample). Then after the convex lens shape is formed at the central part of piezoelectric material 20, the ion-damaged layer, which is generated by the dry etching process in 0.2 μm˜0.3 μm depth, is removed by the mechanical polishing method. Then we have the oscillator with electrically excellent performance, since the lens shape of ring support type is formed at the cylindrical central part, and a lens shape in FIG. 27(f) is formed at the central part of hollow cylinder, we get the oscillator (resonator), which outer surface ids in a ring-support shape with the holding part.

[0130] Although FIGS. 28 and 29 show the example to get the convex lens shape, other shapes of oscillator (resonator) in plano-convex, bi-convex, concavo-convex, or other arbitrary shapes, can be made also by processing to keep the initial shape, when both surfaces of the piezoelectric material 20 are machined in flat, concave or other shapes.

[0131]FIG. 29 illustrates another process to make the convex lens shape oscillation part (resonation part) with very thin connector in the ring shape holder. This is shown step by step as follows.

[0132] (1) At both ends of the piezoelectric disk, a convex lens type auxiliary blank 51 is pressingly set by using said mechanical polishing process, press formation (to make lens), etching process, or other means. Otherwise, the auxiliary blank 51 is pasted on the piezoelectric material 20 by using resist (for instance OSPR resist made in Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Ltd.) or other adhesives. Here the material of the auxiliary blank 51 is glass, optical glass, lens, quartz, tungsten, nickel, pure iron, plastics, or others.

[0133] (2) Only the convex lens shape part of auxiliary blank 51 is dry etched, a hollow cylindrical auxiliary tool 50, which is made from glass, optical glass, lens, quartz, tungsten, nickel, pure iron, plastics or others, is set on the top of the auxiliary blank 51, in order not to etch other part of the convex lens shape. And the surface of auxiliary tool 50 is homogeneously shaven by dry etching process at the same time. Then the surface of blank 51 is etched at first, next the surface of piezoelectric material 20 is shaven, and ultra thin convex lens shape is made at the central part in hollow cylindrical shape. After the mechanical lapping process removes 0.2 μm˜0.3 μm ion-damaged layer, which is followed by the dry etching, and finally got is the electrically excellent oscillator, which has the lens shape in the hollow cylindrical central part and the ring-support type holder at the outer part.

[0134]FIG. 30 has the auxiliary blank 51, which is made by pressing process or others in the lens shape at the hollow cylindrical central part and the ring-support type holder, and this is different from FIGS. 28 and 29. Quartz oscillators, which have the lens shape in the hollow cylindrical central part and also have the ring-support type holder at the outer part as shown in FIG. 30(f), can be conveniently made without using the auxiliary tool 50, which is made from glass, optical glass, lens, quartz, tungsten, nickel, pure iron, plastics, or others.

[0135] For the material of the auxiliary blank 51 can be is made from glass, optical glass, lens, quartz, tungsten, nickel, pure iron, plastics or others, however the best material is quartz glass similar to quartz crystal to press the auxiliary blank 51, but other material is to be useful. In FIG. 30 the convex lens auxiliary blank 51 is set by pressing on both sides of piezoelectric material 20 or pasted by resist adhesives and dry etched, however other arbitrary shapes as plano-convex, bi-flat, concavo-convex, bi-convex are to be made by processing the auxiliary blank 51 in convex lens, concave lens or other shapes and by decreasing the thickness the with the initial shape by the dry etching.

[0136] Electrodes 23 and 24 in FIG. 31 are made by vapor depositing Al, Ag, Au and so forth on both sides of the oscillator (resonator), which is made by the above process. And the ultra slender gold wire 26 (for example 18 μm) is pasted to the electrode with a bonding machine or electric ally conductive adhesive. Usually the electrode and lead wire are made by vaporization only, however the electrode only is vaporized and afterwards the gold wire is pasted to the electrode, since the electrode and lead wire cannot be made solely by the vaporization when the diameter of the hollow cylinder is very small and slender.

[0137] Other examples are illustrated in FIGS. 32, 33, 34 and 35. In order to mass produce quartz blanks in two steps double-sided grooved type by the chemical wet etching and dry etching process, the quartz wafer is masked and etched by the wet or dry process in these cases. These shapes are shown in FIGS. 32(a), 33, 34(a) and 35(a).

[0138] In these examples, 80 μm thick quartz wafer is masked as the first step, then this oscillation part is processed in every 25 μm from both sides of the quartz wafer by chemical etching or dry etching as shown in FIGS. 32(b), 33(b), 34(b) and 35(b), and the thickness of oscillation part becomes 30 μm after these etching processes. Then, this quartz wafer is masked as the second step, this 30 μm oscillation part is processed in every 13 μm from both sides by chemical etching or dry etching as shown in FIGS. 32(c), 33(c), 34(c) and 35(c), and the thickness of oscillation part becomes 4 μm after these etching processes.

[0139] Like this shows, Circle shapes shown in FIGS. 32(a) and 33(a), hexagonal shape shown in FIG. 34(a), square shape shown in FIG. 35(a), or other quartz wafer shapes can be masked as the first step to be 30 μm thick of the oscillation part by the chemical etching or dry etching. As the second masking process shown in FIGS. 32(c), 33(c), 34(c), and 35(c), the thickness of the oscillation part is processed to be 4 μm.

[0140] This method has the following merits.

[0141] {circle over (1)} Although the outer shape is square or rectangular, the shape of the oscillation part becomes pure circular or circle, which is electrically excellent.

[0142] {circle over (2)} As shown in FIGS. 32 and 33, when the outer shape of quartz blank is square or rectangular, and the shape of the oscillation part is purely circular or in circle, it becomes difficult for the crystal orientation to be seen, since the crystal orientation has no mark. Then the crystal orientation is marked by etching in a specific shape as shown in FIG. 32(a) and FIG. 33(a), when the shape of the oscillation part is processed to be circular.

[0143] {circle over (3)} As shown in FIGS. 32, 33, 34 and 35, when the outer shape of quartz blank is square, the mass production becomes easy compared to the circular case, as the cutting is conveniently done.

[0144] {circle over (4)} The outer shape of quartz blank can be square, however the electric property of quartz oscillator becomes more excellent, when the shape of oscillation part is purely circular or in circle.

[0145] {circle over (5)} As shown in FIGS. 32(c), 33(c), 34(c), and 35(c), the ratio of diameter over the thickness (d/t) is to be approximately 80 and the optimum diameter of oscillation part is 4 μm×80=0.32 mm in order to get the best electric performance, when the oscillation part is 4 μm thick. When the initial quartz blank is 80 μm thick and the oscillation diameter is 0.32 mm, it is impossible for the circular oscillation part to process down to 4 μm thick by only one masking after the chemical etching of 76 μm. When the diameter of oscillation part becomes small as 0.32 mm, the chemical etching cannot be homogeneously processed due to the surface tension of solution as hydrogen fluoride and the crystalline anisotropy. When the chemical etching is successively processed more than two times, it become possible for the blank of the small diameter less than 0.32 mm to be shaved.

[0146] {circle over (6)} In case of the dry etching, there exists no problem for the diameter of oscillation part to be small as 0.32 mm.

[0147] {circle over (7)} When this is in two steps wise shape and the thickness is decreased step by step, the mechanical polishing process can easily remove the damaged layer, which is generated during the chemical or dry etching.

[0148]FIGS. 36, 37, 38, and 39 illustrate quartz blank samples of two steps single-sided concave shape, which are different from those in FIGS. 32, 33, 34 and 35. In these examples, the quartz wafer is masked and processed by chemical and dry etching to produce massively. These shapes are illustrated in FIGS. 36(a), 37(a), 38(a), and 39(a). At first, 80 μm thick quartz wafer is masked as the first stage, and one side of wafer is shaved in 60 μm by chemical etching and dry etching as shown in FIGS. 36(b), 37(b), 38(b), and 39(b), and the thickness becomes 20 μm. Then 20 μm wafer is masked as the second stage, and it is shaved in 16 μm by chemical etching and dry etching as shown in FIGS. 36(c), 37(c), 38(c), and 39(c), and the thickness finally becomes 4 μm.

[0149] These processes to shave the oscillation part to 4 μm have the following merits in addition to those shown in FIGS. 32, 33, 34 and 35.

[0150] {circle over (1)} After this is masked twice or more than two times to make the aperture ratio larger, processed by chemical etching and dry chemical etching, and next mechanically polished as shown in FIG. 2(a), the aperture ratio(d/t) becomes approximately 80 and the electrical property is to be optimum. FIG. 38(c) illustrates the cross section, and this structure is concave to widen the pressure distribution. This concave structure is not plano-convex with a larger curvature, it really becomes like a convex lens similar to concavo-convex or bi-convex shape, which electric property is ideal, and we complete the ultra thin quartz oscillator less than 0.5 μm. For example of BT-cut, the primary frequency of fundamental wave becomes approximately 5.0 GHz. Also, it is possible to use other materials such as AT-cut, SC-cut, FC-cut, IT-cut, and other cuts.

[0151] {circle over (2)} When the outer region of oscillation part is structured to be another concave shape or stepwise, this electrode can be easily made, even if the diameter target of oscillation part is extremely small.

[0152] {circle over (3)} After the chemical etching and dry etching are done, the polishing process to remove the ion damaged layer (changed layer due to the process) is conveniently executed, since the thickness of quartz blank is step by step decreasing toward the center.

[0153]FIGS. 40, 41, 42, and 43 illustrate the manufacturing method of quartz oscillator in two steps single sided concave shape. As shown in FIGS. 40(b), 41(b), 42(b), and 43(b), one surface of 80 μm thick quartz wafer is masked as the first stage, and one side of wafer, which diameter is 0.32 mm and pure circular (otherwise circular, square, hexagonal or other shape), is shaved in 16 μm by chemical etching and dry etching. Then the quartz wafer is masked as the second stage, one side of wafer is shaved in 60 μm by chemical etching and dry etching as shown in FIGS. 40(c), 41(c), 42(c), and 43(c), where the diameter is 1.6 mm and the shape is circular, square, hexagonal or others, and the thickness becomes 4 μm and the diameter of the oscillation part is 0.32 mm.

[0154] Also the mechanically polished shape as shown in FIGS. 40(c), 41(c), 42(c), and 43(c) can remarkably improve the electrical performance, after the chemical etching and dry etching are done and the polishing process to remove the ion damaged layer due to the etching is properly executed.

[0155]FIGS. 44, 45, 46, and 47 illustrate manufacturing processes of quartz oscillators in two steps double-sided grooved types.

[0156] As shown in FIGS. 44(b), 45(b), 46(b) and 47(b), one surface of 80 μm thick quartz wafer is masked as the first stage, and one side of wafer, which diameter is 0.32 mm and pure circular (otherwise nearly circular), is shaved in 12 μm by chemical etching and dry etching. Then the quartz wafer is masked as the second stage, and both sides of wafer are shaved in 26 μm by chemical etching and dry etching as shown in FIGS. 44(c), 45(c), 46(c), and 47(c), where the diameter is 1.6 mm and the shape is circular, square, hexagonal, or others. The thickness becomes 4 μm and the diameter of the oscillation part is 0.32 mm.

[0157]FIG. 48 illustrates an optimum dimension diagram, which oscillation part becomes 0.8 μm. In case of AT-cut, the 0.8 μm thickness of the oscillation part means to complete a quartz oscillator of 2.1 GHz approximately. Then the next hand phone will becomes extremely small.

[0158] The oscillation part becomes the shape as shown in FIGS. 44(c), 45(c), 46(c), 47(c), and 48(c), after the chemical etching, dry etching and mechanical polishing process by dual-face polishing machine (polishing table) and other polishing means to remove the damaged layer due to the etching. In this case, since the oscillation part of quartz blank becomes stepwise and the oscillating diameter is large as illustrated in FIGS. 44(c), 45(c), 46(c), 47 and 48(c), the polishing agent as cerium oxide can smoothly penetrate from both sides during the polishing process by the polishing table, barrel polishing machine, or ultrasonic polishing method. Therefore the mechanical polishing becomes efficient, and the electric performance of quartz oscillator becomes ideal.

[0159] Here the following three problems happen during the mass production.

[0160] {circle over (1)} From the result of the examination, when single-sided grooved type oscillator with two steps is processed to be plano-convex shape, the optimum aperture ratio (d/t) is approximately 80.

[0161] {circle over (2)} The dimension of the blank is bigger than 1 inch×1 inch, and the thickness becomes larger than 80 μm.

[0162] {circle over (3)} The quartz crystal is anisotropy, and the anisotropy appears when the chemical etching shaves more deeply than {fraction (1/20)} of the oscillation diameter.

[0163] In order to clear these three problems, two chemical etching processes in FIGS. 49, 50, 51, 52, and 53 are employed by the relative etching process. At first, the central oscillation part with a small diameter is etched, and secondly, the second oscillation part (the second groove) with larger diameter is etched.

[0164]FIGS. 49, 50, 51, 52, and 53 illustrate these shapes and dimensions to satisfy the above conditions. When the quartz oscillator in two steps single-sided concave shape is made by pressurized polishing process from both sides with the dual-face polishing machine or one-face polishing process, the planar surface which is at the opposite side of the chemical etching becomes convex lens shape nearly as plano-convex, concavo-convex, or bi-convex, which is ideal for the electric performance.

[0165]FIGS. 55 and 56 illustrate the first shape example of two steps single-sided concave quartz oscillator, which were measured by an interference microscope, after the oscillator was made on basis of manufacturing diagram in FIG. 54. When the peak to valley of surface profile is shown in FIGS. 55 and 56, the surface is manufactured to be accurate as approximately 0.002 μm roughness. Also the shape accuracy is made to be almost purely circular. Furthermore, measured data in FIG. 56 shows that the parallel accuracy is around 0.02 μm thick at the center of the first oscillation part, however this does not affect the electrical performance of quartz oscillator.

[0166]FIG. 57 shows the first photo sample (Normanski microgram) of two steps single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator in FIGS. 55 and 56. Based on this photograph in FIG. 57, the quartz anisotropy is said not to be observed.

[0167]FIG. 58 shows the changing state to the convex lens shape of the first oscillation part in FIG. 58(c), wherein the quartz oscillator in FIG. 54(c) is made by pressurizing from both sides.

[0168]FIGS. 60 and 61 illustrate the second upper surface shape example of two steps single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator, which were measured by an interference microscope, after the oscillator was made on basis of the manufacturing diagram in FIG. 59. When the peak to valley of surface profile is shown in FIGS. 60 and 61, the surface is manufactured to be accurate as approximately 0.003 μm roughness similar to FIGS. 55 and 56. Also the shape accuracy is made to be almost purely circular. Furthermore, the measured data in FIG. 61 shows that the parallel accuracy is around 0.02 μm thick at the oscillation part same as in FIG. 56, however this inversely affects the better electrical performance of quartz oscillator due to the bi-convex shape.

[0169]FIG. 62 shows the second photo sample (Normanski microgram) of two steps single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator in FIGS. 60 and 61. Based on this photograph in FIG. 62, the quartz anisotropy is not observed same as the first photo sample in FIG. 57.

[0170]FIG. 63 shows the changing state to the convex lens shape of the first oscillation part in FIG. 63(c), when the quartz oscillator in FIG. 59(c) is made by pressurizing from both sides.

[0171]FIGS. 65 and 66 illustrate the second upper surface shape example of two steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator, which were measured by an interference microscope, after the oscillator was made on basis of the manufacturing diagram in FIG. 64. When the peak to valley of surface profile is shown in FIGS. 65 and 66, the surface is manufactured to be accurate as approximately 0.003 μm roughness similar to FIGS. 55 and 56. Also the shape accuracy is made to be almost purely circular. Furthermore, the measured data in FIG. 66 shows that the parallel accuracy is around 0.02 μm thick at the oscillation part same as in FIG. 56, however this inversely affects the better electrical performance of quartz oscillator due to the bi-convex shape.

[0172]FIGS. 67 and 68 illustrate the third shape example of two steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator, whose rear surfaces were measured by an interference microscope. When the peak to valley of surface profile is seen in FIGS. 67 and 68, the rear surface is manufactured to be accurate as approximately 0.004 μm roughness similar to FIGS. 55 and 56. Also the shape accuracy is made to be almost purely circular. Furthermore, the measured data in FIG. 68 shows that the parallel accuracy is around 0.02 μm thick at the oscillation part same as in FIG. 66.

[0173]FIG. 69 shows the third photo sample (Normanski microgram) of two steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator in FIGS. 65 and 66. Based on the photograph in FIG. 69, the quartz anisotropy is not observed as in FIG. 57.

[0174]FIG. 71 illustrates the forth example of two steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator surface, which was made by the manufacturing diagram in FIG. 70 and the front surface was measured by an interference microscope. When the peak to valley of surface profile is seen in FIG. 71, the front surface is manufactured not to be accurate as approximately 1.0 μm roughness, which is quite different from FIGS. 55 and 56. Also the shape accuracy is made to be distorted and not to be circular

[0175]FIG. 72 illustrates the forth example of two steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator surface, which was made by the manufacturing diagram in FIG. 70 and the rear surface was measured by an interference microscope. When the peak to valley of surface profile is seen in FIG. 72, the front surface is manufactured to be worse as approximately 2.0 μm roughness, which is quite different from FIGS. 55 and 56. Also the shape accuracy is made to be distorted and nearly elliptic similar to FIG. 71.

[0176]FIGS. 73 and 74 show the forth photo samples (Normanski microgram of front and rear surfaces) of two steps single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator in FIGS. 71 and 72. Based on the photographs in FIGS. 73 and 74, the front and rear surfaces are made to be distorted and nearly elliptic due to the anisotropy, and these are quite different from that in FIG. 57.

[0177]FIG. 76 illustrates the fifth surface example of two steps double-sided grooved type quartz oscillator, which was made by the manufacturing diagram in FIG. 75 and the rear surface were measured by an interference microscope. When the peak to valley of surface profile is seen in FIG. 76, the surface is manufactured to be worse as unobservable, which is quite different from FIGS. 55 and 56. Also the shape accuracy is made to be much more distorted and worse elliptic than the forth case in FIGS. 71 and 72.

[0178]FIG. 77 shows the fifth photo sample (Normanski microgram) of two steps single-sided grooved type quartz oscillator in FIG. 76. Based on the photograph in FIG. 77, the surface is made to be distorted and nearly elliptic due to the anisotropy, and this is quite different from that in FIG. 57.

[0179]FIGS. 78 and 79 show the sixth shape diagram of conventional quartz oscillator front surface in one step double-sided inverse mesa type, which is approximately 5 μm thick and made by Hoffman Inc. in USA. The peak to valley of the shape diagram in FIGS. 78 and 79 is approximately 0.008 μm, however the surface accuracy is worse than that of two steps grooved type in FIGS. 56, 61, 66, and 68. Also the large wave is observed on the surface of oscillation part.

[0180]FIGS. 80 and 81 show the sixth rear surface shape diagram of one step double-sided inverse mesa type conventional quartz oscillator, which is approximately 5 μm thick as seen in FIGS. 78 and 79. The peak to valley of the rear shape diagram is approximately 0.025 μm and worse than the front surface in FIGS. 78 and 79. Furthermore the surface accuracy is ten times worse than that of two steps concave type in FIGS. 56, 61, 66, and 68. Also the large wave is observed on the surface of oscillation part. Therefore, the surface accuracy and parallel accuracy of two steps grooved type are found to be better than those of one step inverse mesa type. FIG. 82 shows a surface photo (Normanski microgram) of the sixth manufactured sample in double-sided inverse mesa type seen in FIGS. 78 and 79.

[0181] In conclusions,

[0182] {circle over (1)} As demonstrated in the above examples, there exists no anisotropy of quartz oscillators in every case of the first manufactured sample of two steps single-sided grooved type in FIGS. 55 and 56, the second sample of two steps single-sided grooved type in FIGS. 60 and 61, and the third sample of two steps double-sided grooved type in FIGS. 65 and 66.

[0183] {circle over (2)} The surface accuracy and shape accuracy of the forth quartz oscillator sample in steps double-sided grooved type in FIG. 71 and of the fifth quartz oscillator sample in steps single-sided grooved type in FIG. 76 are measured to be worse than those of the first, second, and third samples. This is found to be due to the quartz anisotropy.

[0184] {circle over (3)} It is found to be the reason for the quartz anisotropy of first, second, and third samples not to observed (not for the forth and fifth samples), why the larger diameter oscillation part (the second oscillation part) of the first, second, and third samples in FIGS. 54, 59, and 64 are chemically etched at first, and the smaller first oscillation part is done secondly, and why the smaller diameter oscillation part (the first oscillation part) of the forth and fifth samples in FIGS. 70 and 75 are chemically etched at first, and the larger second oscillation part is done secondly (these are etched relatively at the same time).

[0185] {circle over (4)} The first, second, and third samples are proved to be machined in ultra fine accuracy, the forth and fifth samples are not, however the latter devices can be used as the lower grade quartz oscillator. On the contrary, the first, second, and third oscillators show more than one hundred times better accuracy compared to the forth and fifth cases. Therefore the former three manufacturing methods should be utilized for the ultra accurate quartz oscillator as shown in FIGS. 54, 59, and 64.

[0186] The following paragraph shows the frequency, wave shape and resonance characteristics of quartz oscillator in two steps shape.

[0187] {circle over (1)} FIGS. 83, 84, 85 and 86 show measured resonance characteristics of the second quartz oscillator in two steps single-sided grooved type in FIGS. 59, 64, and 70, and of the third and forth ones in two steps double-sided grooved type.

[0188] {circle over (2)} Resonance characteristics in FIGS. 83, 84, 85, and 86 are measured at the first oscillation part in FIGS. 54(c), 64(c) and 70(c), not at the larger second grooved region (second oscillation part) in FIGS. 54(b), 64(b) and 70(b).

[0189] {circle over (3)} FIGS. 83 and 84 are measured resonance characteristics of the second quartz oscillator example, which are made based on the diagrams in FIG. 59 for two steps single-sided grooved type. When material blank is AT-cut, it is thought to be the most excellent electrical performance in the world at present for the resonant point at 184.872 MHz in FIGS. 83 and 181.232 MHz in FIG. 84 to see the resonance characteristics in FIGS. 83 and 84.

[0190] {circle over (4)} FIG. 85 is measured resonance characteristics of the forth quartz oscillator example, which is made based on the diagram in FIG. 70 for two steps double-sided grooved type. When material blank is AT-cut, it is thought to be the most excellent electrical performance in the world at present for the resonant point at 257.369 MHz to see the resonance characteristics in FIG. 85.

[0191] {circle over (5)} FIG. 86 is measured resonance characteristics of the third quartz oscillator example, which is made based on the diagram in FIG. 64 for two steps double-sided grooved type. It is thought to be the most excellent electrical performance in the world at present for the resonant point at 283.178 MHz to see the resonance characteristics in FIG. 86.

[0192] {circle over (6)} FIG. 87 is measured resonance characteristics of the sixth quartz oscillator example, which is made by Hoffman Inc. in USA for one step double-sided inverse mesa type and oscillation part is approximately 5 μm.

[0193] {circle over (7)} When the resonance property of one step double-sided inverse mesa type in FIG. 87 is compared both to those of two steps single-sided grooved type in FIGS. 83 and 84 and to two steps double-sided grooved type in FIGS. 85 and 86, the electrical resonance characteristics in FIGS. 83, 84, 85, and 86 is much better than that in FIG. 87, although these frequencies are slightly different.

[0194] {circle over (8)} It is thought to be due to the present two steps grooved shape for electrical resonance characteristics of two steps single-sided grooved type in FIGS. 83 and 84 and of two steps double-sided grooved type in FIGS. 85 and 86, to be much better than that of Hoffman's resonator in one step inverse mesa type in FIG. 87.

[0195] {circle over (9)} The large area of the second grooved part (second oscillation part) in two steps grooved stereo type in FIGS. 59(b), 64(b), and 70(c) is not vibrated, the first oscillation part in very small diameter is only vibrated, and the first oscillation part is demonstrated to contribute solely for the electrical resonance.

[0196] {circle over (10)} The above discovery implies that the ultra high frequency resonance over 160 GHz primary wave (approximately 0.015 μm thick), with BT-cut, for example, can be oscillated in near future, and that it can be possible for electrically ideal quartz oscillator to be made in concavo-convex lens shape rather than in two steps single-grooved plano-convex type.

[0197]FIGS. 88 and 89 show dimensional manufacturing drawings of quartz oscillators in three steps single-sided grooved type. When these quartz oscillators in three steps single-sided grooved type are compared to those in two steps single-sided grooved type, electric characteristics of the former are found to be better than those of the latter. The reason is due to the three steps stereo structure and the efficient energy utilization.

[0198] The quartz oscillator in FIG. 88 is nearly eight polygonal at the first oscillation part and circular at the second and third oscillation part, on the other hand, the quartz oscillator in FIG. 89 is nearly eight polygonal at the second oscillation part similar to the first part.

[0199]FIGS. 90 and 91 show dimensional manufacturing drawings of quartz oscillators in three steps double-sided grooved type. When these quartz oscillators in three steps double-sided grooved type are compared to those in two steps double-sided grooved type, electric characteristics of the former are found to be much better than those of the latter. The reason is due to the three steps stereo structure and the efficient energy utilization.

[0200] The quartz oscillator in FIG. 90 is nearly eight polygonal at the first oscillation part and circular at the second and third oscillation part. On the other hand, the quartz oscillator in FIG. 91 is nearly eight polygonal at the second oscillation part similar to the first part.

[0201]FIG. 92 illustrates the mechanical polishing example, where quartz oscillator in the three steps single-sided grooved type in FIG. 88(f) is machined by pressurizing from the upper and lower tables of dual-face polishing machine (polishing table). This polishing process can make three steps single-sided quartz oscillator, whose shape equals approximately to concavo-convex in FIG. 92(f) rather than single-sided convex.

[0202] The reason to become nearly concavo-convex lens shape in FIG. 92(f) is that quartz oscillator in the parallel plate type is poor electrical resonance with spurious oscillations, since the high frequency quartz resonator becomes extremely thin and the parallel accuracy allowance is very severe. On the other hand, the quartz resonator in convex lens shape shows excellent electrical performance, since the parallel accuracy allowance is not so sever than that of the parallel plate.

[0203]FIGS. 94 and 95 show measured surface shapes of the second quartz oscillator example in two steps single-sided grooved type, which is made by the manufacture diagram in FIG. 59 after pressurizing between upper and lower table of dual-face polishing machine (polishing table) as seen in FIGS. 60, 61, and 62.

[0204] The single-sided grooved type is seen as the second manufactured examples in FIGS. 59 and 60, the seventh one in FIG. 94 and the eighth in FIG. 95. However there observed the interference stripes (Newton rings) both in the seventh example in FIG. 94 and the eighth one in FIG. 95, which are machined by the polishing table. The difference between the seventh case and eighth case is that the seventh example in FIG. 94 is polished during 30 minutes, and the eighth one in FIG. 95 is polished during 60 minutes. The seventh example becomes concavo-convex in FIG. 63(c), and the shape of the originally planar surface is slightly 1.25 μm convex toward the lower direction. The eighth example also becomes concavo-convex in FIG. 63(c), and the shape of the originally planar surface is measured to be 3.5,u m convex toward the lower direction by the interference microscope.

[0205] Therefore the protruding grade is found to be proportional to the polishing time.

[0206] The electrical property of the eighth quartz oscillator example in FIG. 95 is much better than the seventh example in FIG. 94.

[0207] Based on these results for the seventh and eighth manufacturing cases, the quartz oscillators in two steps single-sided grooved type are found to become convex lens shape, which is introduced in FIGS. 1, 2, and 6 as the one step inverse mesa type.

[0208] The dotted line a-b in FIGS. 94 and 95 is the boundary layer, which divides the first oscillation part and second grooved part (second oscillation part). When the dotted line a-b is the boundary, which divides the first oscillation part and second grooved part (second oscillation part), the second part becomes slightly convex lens shape, the quartz oscillator is measured to become more clearly concavo-convex shape (one side is concave and another side is convex) with larger curvature than that of one step single-sided inverse mesa type in FIGS. 1, 2, and 6. Also two steps single-sided grooved type in FIGS. 94 and 95 becomes larger curvature type (the lower line is widen), and concavo-convex (rather than plano-convex) in more protruding convex lens shape than those of one step inverse mesa type in FIG. 6.

[0209] Therefore three steps or more than three steps single-sided grooved type becomes larger curvature shape (the lower line is widen), and concavo-convex shape in more protruding convex lens type than those of two steps single-sided grooved type.

[0210]FIG. 93 illustrated another shape of above example. FIG. 93(a) and (b) show one case of double-sided grooved device which one side is one step and another side is two steps, FIGS. 93(c) and (d) show the case which one side is one step and another side is three steps, and FIGS. 93(e) and (f) show another case which one side is two steps and another side is three steps. When the shape in FIGS. 93(a), (c), and (e) are polished by pressurizing between upper and lower table of dual-face polishing table (polishing table), the central oscillation part becomes convex lens shape as shown in FIGS. 93(b), (d), and (f).

[0211]FIG. 96 is a stating diagram of the parallel accuracy for a parallel plate. FIGS. 96(a), (b), and (c) illustrate objects of 100 mm, 50 mm, and 25 mm with same incline angle. The cross section height of 100 mm object is 2 mm and 4 mm high. The cross section height of 50 mm object is 2 mm and approximately 3 mm high. The cross section height of 25 mm object is 2 mm and approximately 2.3 mm high. Thus, it is found even for the same inclination objects that the error between these heights is smaller as the length is shorter. These phenomena can explain the following.

[0212] It must be parallel or in convex lens shape for the quartz oscillator to perform ideal electrical characteristics. The best parallel error is ideally 0, however it is practically impossible to make the plate with zero error of parallelism. Besides, the size of wafer becomes larger in these years, and the thickness becomes thicker as the size becomes bigger. The typical wafer size is 60 mm high, 30 mm wide, and 80 μm thick at the present. As the size of wafer becomes larger, the parallel error is inversely bigger.

[0213] When quartz blank is chemically etched, the quartz anisotropy generates. As the method for avoiding this anisotropy, this must not be chemically etched more than {fraction (1/20)} of the aperture (diameter). For example, if the thickness of the oscillation part is 5 μm of 80 μm thick wafer, and the remaining 75 μm is chemically etched, the aperture (diameter) should be 1500 μm=1.5 mm, which is 20 times of 75 μm.

[0214] When the oscillation part of quartz oscillator is 5 μm thick, the diameter of the oscillation part is enough to be 80 times of the thickness both for parallel plate and convex lens shape since the aperture (diameter) is sufficient to be 0.4 mm for the 5 μm thick oscillation part.

[0215] When the same parallel plate is used, the parallel error of 1.5 mm diameter is quite different from that of 0.4 mm diameter. In conclusion, the smaller the aperture is, the smaller the parallel error of the oscillation part is relatively, when parallel error of the wafer is same. In order to make small aperture quartz oscillator, it is needed to avoid the original quartz anisotropy, and it is found to be the most optimum for two or three steps single-sided grooved or double-sided grooved shape, since the minimum thickness of wafer is 80 μm.

[0216] The resonance characteristics is best in FIGS. 83, 84, 85, and 86, since the oscillation part aperture is designed to be small, and the parallel error of the parallel plate relatively becomes small first of all. The second reason is thought to be that the impressed energy is efficiently utilized in two steps grooved type. The third reason is that the surface accuracy is between 0.002 μm and 0.004 μm due to the chemical etching process, when the oscillation aperture is small and the shape is two steps grooved type as shown in FIGS. 56, 61, 66, and 68.

[0217] When quartz oscillator in FIG. 56 is measured by a photograph in FIG. 57, the oscillation aperture (diameter) is 0.12 mm, and the surface accuracy is 0.002 μm. In case of quartz oscillator in FIG. 61, the oscillation aperture is measured to be 0.59 mm by the photograph in FIG. 62, and the surface accuracy is 0.003 μm. In cases of quartz oscillator in FIGS. 68 and 66, the oscillation aperture is measured to be 0.95 mm by the photograph in FIG. 69, and the surface accuracy is 0.004 μm. The above events demonstrate that the smaller the oscillation aperture is, the higher the surface machining accuracy is.

EFFECT OF INVENTION

[0218] (1) When both ends of cylindrical blank are made at first to be the final target as lens, single-sided convex, single-sided groove, or planar shape, the oscillation part with a predetermined thickness can be shaped in the hollow cylindrical piezoelectric element, by shaving homogeneously to be circular from the cylinder end with a dry etching process.

[0219] (2) The following effect will arise, when the planar piezoelectric blank is attached by an auxiliary mold in convex lens or convex lens shape, or when the auxiliary mold shape is pressed to the end of piezoelectric material by dry etching process after the auxiliary mold is pasted to the piezoelectric material with dry etching process. When the press forming makes the optical lens of flat and convex (or concave) shape with the outer ring-support (in frame shape) holder, and the auxiliary mold as the optical lens is attached to the planar piezoelectric material and shaved by the dry etching process, the planar piezoelectric surface is processed to be in the same lens shape with the high surface accuracy as the conventional lens, which is machined by press forming or other mechanical polishing processes. Then we can conveniently manufacture the ultra accurate quartz oscillator (quartz resonator), which is in lens shape at the central part and accompanied by the outer holder in the ring-support shape (frame shape or hollow bamboo cylinder shape).

[0220] (3) Furthermore, since the crystal axis of quartz can be easily identical to the machining axis of optical lens, the quartz oscillator becomes electrically excellent.

[0221] (4) The final surface accuracy becomes equal to the original surface accuracy at both ends of cylinder shape. However the intrinsic electrical characteristics of piezoelectric element will not restore, if the ion-damaged layer due to the dry etching process is removed.

[0222] (5) If the cylinder is machined to be in the hollow cylinder shape by the mechanical process, it is difficult for the deep groove to be machined.

[0223] (6) When the piezoelectric material is formed to be in hollow cylinder shape by the dry etching process, the lens shaped oscillator is made at the central part of hollow cylinder, which hole diameter is approximately 10 mm, hole length is from 1.0 cm to 15 cm, and thickness is around 1 mm.

[0224] (7) It is actually extremely difficult for the hollow cylinder thickness to be machined only by the mechanical process, however the present invention to use the dry etching can manufacture oscillators in ultra high performance, since this invention enables the processing to be in lens shape at the central part with the holder of extremely thin bamboo hollow cylinder and ring-support shape (bamboo type hollow cylinder shape) at the outer part.

[0225] (8) The thickness of the bamboo type hollow cylinder can be polished to be extremely thin, since the dry etching process is done at the same time both for outer and inner surfaces of bamboo type ring-support shape.

[0226] (9) If the ion-damaged layer is not considered during the dry etching process (RIE or CIP), the ultra thin lens shape can be manufactured after both ends are shaved in the same accuracy as the original one at the end of the cylinder.

[0227] (10) Since we can manufacture oscillators, whose wall is quite thin, hole diameter is small, hole length of bamboo hollow cylinder is long, central pressure censor part is in the convex or concave lens shape, and it makes high performance to catch an acoustic wave.

[0228] (11) When the outer diameter of small oscillator in bamboo type hollow cylinder shape is less than ½ inch, for example, the pressure or the temperature of oil, methane gas, and so on is always measured at the same time, after this is inserted into the pipe under say 5000 m ground to pump oil, methane etc.

[0229] (12) The diameter of conventional pressure censor (called quartz censor) is large as about ¾ inch, and this cannot always be inserted into the drilling pipe to get oil and methane.

[0230] (13) This high performance of pressure censor can detect oil and methane gas in extremely deep underground.

[0231] If it is two steps single-sided grooved type or double-sided grooved type (abbreviation for grooved type or grooved resonators), after the second oscillation part (second grooved part) in circular, triangular, rectangular, hexagonal, or other shapes to mark the crystal orientation of piezoelectric material is machined inside or at the central part in square or rectangular shape, the inside or the central region of the second oscillation part is again formed to be pure circular, quasi-circular, triangular, square, hexagonal, or other shapes. The following effects are given.

[0232] {circle over (1)} Since the shape of the rectangular quartz blank is machined to be pure circular, quasi-circular or other shapes, the piezoelectric device becomes to show more excellent electric performance.

[0233] {circle over (2)} Since the outer shape of the quartz blank can form rectangular shape even if the oscillation part is purely circular or quasi-circular, the quartz wafer can be automatically cut, and then mass production becomes easy.

[0234] {circle over (3)} Even when the oscillation part is in accurately circular or quasi-circular shape, the crystal axis direction can be conveniently recognized.

[0235] {circle over (4)} When the extremely small oscillation part is manufactured by the chemical etching process, the shape is formed to avoid to be affected by the surface tension and crystal anisotropy due to the chemical etching step by step.

[0236] {circle over (5)} Since the most ideal frequency of oscillation energy at the first circular vibrating part is dissipated from the outer second oscillation part (second grooved part) toward the outer periphery step by step, the quartz oscillator becomes to show the excellent ideal electrical performance.

[0237] {circle over (6)} As the oscillation part is made to be very small and the aperture ratio (d/t) is set to around 80 by forming the oscillation part to be stepwise thin, the electrically excellent quartz oscillator can be manufactured, when the primary frequency is more than 400 MHz (less than 4 μm thick for AT-cut) for the AT-cut case.

[0238] {circle over (7)} After the quartz oscillator is cut to be rectangular, the pure circular or quasi-circular first oscillation part is made, and another circular second oscillation part (second grooved part) is also made inside or at the central region of the first oscillation part to mark the crystal orientation. By this manufacturing method, after the direction marking slit is cut to find the crystal orientation as shown in FIGS. 32(a), 36(a), 40(a), and 44(a). By forming a crescent shape type in FIGS. 33(a), 37(a), 41(a), and 45(b), both the first oscillation part and the second one (second grooved part) can be formed to be pure-circular or quasi-circular, and the quartz blank is conveniently cut and massively produced from the quartz wafer to be in the rectangular outer shape.

[0239] {circle over (8)} If the oscillation part is not made to be in thin at least two steps shape by chemically etching the first oscillation part and the second one (second grooved part), the wafer is thick as 80 μm. When the frequency of oscillation part is high as 2.1 GHz at AT-cut, the oscillation part is approximately 0.8 μm, the aperture ratio is found to be around 80 to resonate the best wave. Then the diameter of the oscillation part is extremely small as 0.8 μm×80 μm, the homogeneous chemical etching becomes impossible due to the surface tension of liquid solution as hydrogen fluoride etc for the chemical etching or crystal anisotropy, if the oscillation parts are not chemically etched to be thin step by step.

[0240] {circle over (9)} Furthermore, when the aperture diameter is 64 μm, the chemically etched depth by hydrogen fluoride is at most 3.2 μm (for instance approximately {fraction (1/20)} of the diameter). If the chemical etching is deeper than this, the quartz crystal anisotropy appears, and the flat surface accuracy becomes poor. Therefore, the ultra high frequency quartz oscillator must be manufactured by forming at least two steps shape with the chemical etching, since the aperture ratio is found to be about 80 to make electrically high-level quartz oscillator.

[0241] {circle over (10)} When the diameter of the first oscillation part becomes extremely small as 64 μm or 0.32 mm, the shape of the second oscillation part becomes triangular, rectangular, or hexagonal except pure-circular or quasi-circular. Since the shape is too small, this can be better to be pure circular or quasi circular, however this can be triangular, rectangular, hexagonal, or other shapes.

[0242] {circle over (11)} Since the electrode to oscillate only the second oscillation part is attached by photo resist chemical etching process to the front and rear surfaces of the first oscillation part, whose diameter is very small as approximately 0.32 mm and shape is pure-circular or quasi-circular, the second part does not oscillate, and the electrically ideal oscillator (resonator) is made to resonate at more high frequency without the spurious signal.

[0243] {circle over (12)} When the quartz is relatively and chemically etched by using two or three steps or the plural steps shape, the chemical etching can shave the deep groove, which must be deeper than {fraction (1/20)} of the oscillation part diameter to avoid the quartz crystal anisotropy.

[0244] {circle over (13)} After the first chemical etching makes at first the pure circular or quasi circular shape, whose first oscillation part diameter is 0.32 mm and depth is 16 μm for example, the first and second oscillation parts are chemically and relatively etched step by step in order to make form the rectangular, hexagonal, or other shapes with 1.6 mm diameter at the outer part of circular shape, and the anisotropy problem can be solved.

[0245] {circle over (14)} As discussed above, since the quartz anisotropy problem is relatively solved by chemical etching process with two steps more deeply than {fraction (1/20)} of the aperture diameter, it becomes possible for mass production of high frequency quartz oscillator by using over 80 μm thick and more than 1 inch×1 inch wafer plate.

[0246] After the blank is selected to be the quartz crystal unit in the chemically etched single-sided grooved type of more than two steps shape, this is etched by the reactive ion etching (RIE) and polished by dual-face polishing machine, the AT-cut quartz oscillator is successfully developed over 467 MHz fundamental frequency. This quartz oscillator processed by this method is nearly in the concavo-convex or bi-convex shape rather than plano-convex shape as the ideal convex lens type, and this shows the excellent reactance-frequency characteristics.

[0247] This machining method demonstrates that the optimum aperture ratio d/t (diameter/thickness) is 80. As the consequence, when the quartz oscillator with very high frequency is required to be manufactured, the aperture diameter d becomes small, since the diameter d is proportional to the thickness t, which is extremely thin. When the diameter becomes small, the quartz oscillator shows the anisotropy problem, the parallel accuracy cannot be maintained due to the chemical etching process, since the quartz wafer is shaved to be deeper than {fraction (1/20)} of the diameter d. This problem was solved in the following methods. At first, the first chemical etching is done, after the depth of the first oscillation part is selected to be less than {fraction (1/20)} of the aperture diameter d which is 80 times of the thickness t corresponding to the frequency, and next we chemically etched the second oscillation part (second grooved part), whose diameter is much larger than the first oscillation part (outer region of the first oscillation part) and is not affected by d/t (80:1 or 100:1) problem. Since the first and second oscillation part (grooved part) is chemically and respectively etched with two steps, the quartz anisotropy property is solved.

[0248] Also, even if the quartz wafer blank is thick, the aperture d of oscillation part can be very small. Therefore we can mass-produce the ultra high frequency quartz oscillator whose electric characteristic is ideal and extremely thin in the plano-convex shape. This problem was solved in the following way. At first, the first chemical etching is done, after the depth of the first oscillation part is selected to be less than {fraction (1/20)} of the aperture diameter d which is 80 or 100 times of the thickness t corresponding to the frequency, and secondly we chemically etched the second oscillation part (second grooved part), whose diameter is much larger than the first oscillation part (outer region of the first oscillation part) and is not affected by d/t problem. Since the first and second oscillation part (grooved part) is chemically and respectively etched step by step, the quartz anisotropy property is finally solved. When another method from FIG. 32 to FIG. 38 is used instead of the above process, the second grooved part (second oscillation part) is chemically etched or processed by the dry etching at first, and the central first oscillation part is formed to be purely circular or quasi circular, and then this method is found to be the best way, since the quartz anisotropy problem is not observed as previously explained.

[0249] By the way, even if the quartz wafer blank is thick, the aperture d of oscillation part can be very small. Therefore we can mass-produce the electrically ideal ultra high frequency quartz oscillator, which is extremely thin in the plano-convex shape.

[0250] As shown on U.S. Pat. No. 3,694,677 On Sep. 26, 1972, Dr. Gunter K. Guttwein, Dr. Arthur D. Ballato, Dr. Theodre J. Lukaszek invented quartz oscillators of one step inverted mesa type (single-sided inverted mesa type and double-sided inverted mesa type) at US Army. This time we manufactured novel quartz oscillators of single-sided grooved type in two steps shape by using the chemical etching process or dry etching, which were found to have the following advantages over the former quartz oscillators in one step shape.

[0251] {circle over (1)} When the aperture ratio (d/t) is chosen to be optimum, the oscillation area is made to be small as possible. Then the waved shape is prevented and becomes small on the oscillation surface, when the oscillation part is made to be thin as 5 μm. Also the surface accuracy becomes at least ten times better.

[0252] {circle over (2)} Since the quartz anisotropy is avoided by selecting the aperture ratio to be 80:1 (d/t), the surface accuracy is improved for any quartz blank thickness.

[0253] {circle over (3)} The latter new two steps oscillator has the structure of the optimum aperture ratio as 80:1 (d/t) regardless of quartz plate thickness t.

[0254] {circle over (4)} Tough resonators against the mechanical shock and acceleration can be made, since the thick plate improves the structural and dynamic strength. Furthermore the step type quartz oscillators of two or more than two steps shape enables us to resist more strong shock.

[0255] {circle over (5)} Since the former one step quartz oscillator in single-sided inverse mesa type and double-sided inverted mesa type are apt to make pin holes, the one step resonator etched down to 5 μm cannot be mass-produced. The latter two steps one can be mass-produced down to 5 μm.

[0256] {circle over (6)} While one step inverted mesa type device needs only one chemical etching process, the two steps double-sided grooved type requires two etching processes. However the electrical property becomes improved, and the quartz oscillator device over 70 MHz will become two steps double-sided grooved type in the near future.

[0257] {circle over (7)} When the single-sided inverted mesa type or doubled sided inverted mesa type in one step shape becomes thinner than 5 μm, the aperture ratio (d/t) must be larger due to the quartz anisotropy, and then there appears the wave shape (like up and down hills) on the oscillation part. Also the surface accuracy on the oscillation part becomes worse than 0.02 μm.

[0258] {circle over (8)} In case of grooved type in two steps shape, there are few waves, and the surface accuracy is approximately 0.003 μm. And these are ten times better than those of inverted mesa type in one step shape.

[0259] {circle over (9)} In case of grooved type in two or more steps, since there are the second grooved part (second oscillation part) and third grooved part (third oscillation part), the oscillation energy impressed on the small first central oscillation part (oscillating surface with electric voltage) is efficiently and smoothly used at the second and third outer oscillation part step by step, and the resonator shows the excellent electrical performance.

[0260] {circle over (10)} In case of the single-sided grooved type in two steps shape, the device can be mass-produced to be thinner than 5 μu m. After the oscillation surface of the blank is made to be thinner than 5 μm, the blank is polished by the polishing machine to impress mechanical pressure on the quartz plate both from upper and lower sides in order to confine the energy. As the consequence ideal quartz oscillators in the concavo-convex or bi-convex lens shape, rather than the conventional plano-convex, are thought to be made to show better electric property approximately as 5.0 GHz fundamental frequency for BT-cut below 0.5 μm. Furthermore, in the near future, it will be possible for the quartz oscillator to be developed as thin as approximately 0.015 μm (primary frequency as 160 GHz for BT-cut).

[0261] The accurate name of the single-sided inverted mesa type or double-sided inverted mesa type with two steps in this invention should be called as the single-sided grooved type or double-sided grooved type (abbreviated as grooved type or grooved resonators type). The reasons of these names are as follows.

[0262] {circle over (1)} Even when the outer shape is pure circular, the central oscillation part can be in purely circular shape, which contributes better electrical performance.

[0263] {circle over (2)} The oscillation energy impressed on the small first central oscillation part is efficiently and smoothly used at the second grooved part (second oscillation part) and third outer grooved part (third oscillation part) step by step.

[0264] {circle over (3)} The electrode can be made smoothly in step shape.

[0265] {circle over (4)} The quartz blank can be made to be thick, while the oscillation part is processed to be very thin.

[0266] {circle over (5)} Based on the above items, the one step inverted mesa type invented by US Army is quite different from the grooved type in this invention. Therefore this is named as the grooved type or grooved resonators type.

[0267] The following papers were introduced to show that the aperture ratio (d/t) should be approximately 80 in order to achieve the best electrical performance.

[0268] {circle over (1)} 1999 EEE International Frequency Control Symposium, pp.425-428.

[0269] {circle over (2)} 21 st (1999) Piezoelectric Devices Conference and Exhibition, pp.4/1-4/6.

[0270] {circle over (3)} 2000 IEEE/EIA International Frequency Control Symposium & Exhibition, pp 255-259.

[0271] This invention is related to the manufacturing process of grooved type device in two or more than two steps stereo shape by using the chemical etching, and then this can apply to a wide variety of semi-conducting electronic materials such as silicone, gallium arsenate, and so forth in addition to the piezoelectric material as quartz, lithium niobium, etc.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0272] This invention can be used for a wide variety of fields as communication equipment, instrumentation, general computer, Office Automation information technology, home appliance microcomputer, and so forth. 

1. A piezoelectric device, which has an oscillating part of at least two steps where one side thereof is planar and the opposite side is thickest at the peripheral holding portion and thinner toward the central portion.
 2. A piezoelectric device in claim 1, whose oscillating part is in a convex lens-line shape at least on one surface.
 3. A piezoelectric device, which has a oscillating part of at least two steps where both sides thereof are thickest at the peripheral holding portion and thinner toward the central portion.
 4. A piezoelectric device, which is manufactured at the same time to have said thin oscillation part inside of said ring shape holder made from same piezoelectric material.
 5. A piezoelectric device, which is manufactured at the same time to have said thin oscillation part inside of a hollow cylindrical shape holder made from same piezoelectric material.
 6. A piezoelectric device, whose oscillation part has a pair of electrodes by vacuum deposit in the central surface of these vibrating parts on both sides, and which has a gold wire is led as a lead wire from each electrode.
 7. A piezoelectric device, which is made of a groove in a single-sided inverse mesa type inside said quasi-square quartz blank, and furthermore of said thin oscillation part in said groove.
 8. A piezoelectric device, which is made of a groove in a double-sided inverse mesa type inside said quasi-square quartz blank, and furthermore of said thin oscillation part in said groove.
 9. A piezoelectric device, which is made of the first oscillation part to be able to recognize the piezoelectric crystal orientation inside a central part of said quasi-square quartz blank, and furthermore of much thinner second oscillation part than the first one in a central region of said first oscillation part.
 10. An acousto-electric transducer, which is manufactured to have a convex lens shape oscillation part with the same outer diameter as the inner diameter of a hollow cylinder inside the central location of said hollow cylinder made from piezoelectric material.
 11. An acousto-electric transducer in claim 10, which length from both ends of said hollow cylinder to said transducer is longer than 1, when the inner diameter of said hollow cylinder is set to be
 1. 12. A manufacturing method of said acousto-electric transducer, which makes the oscillation part of a final thickness and target profile, after the final profile is formed on the surface of piezoelectric material which is thicker than the final thickness, and the surface of said piezoelectric material is reactively etched and homogeneously decreasing the thickness from both ends toward the central region of said piezoelectric material.
 13. A manufacturing method of said piezoelectric device, which makes the oscillation part of a final thickness and target profile inside the central region of a rod in hollow cylindrical shape, after the final profile is formed on the surface of a rod made from the piezoelectric material, and the surface of said rod except the wall of said rod is processed by the dry etching and homogeneously decreasing the thickness from both ends toward the central region of said rod.
 14. A manufacturing method of said acousto-electric transducer, which makes the oscillation part of a final thickness and target profile, after the final profile is formed on the surface of piezoelectric material which is thicker than the final thickness, and the surface of said piezoelectric material is processed by the dry etching and homogeneously decreasing the thickness from both ends toward the central region of said piezoelectric material.
 15. A manufacturing method of said piezoelectric device, which makes the oscillation part of a final thickness and target profile inside the central region of a rod in hollow cylindrical shape, after the final profile is formed on the surface of a rod made from the piezoelectric material, and the surface of said rod except the wall of said rod is processed by the dry etching and homogeneously decreasing the thickness from both ends toward the central region of said rod.
 16. A manufacturing method of said piezoelectric device, which makes the piezoelectric material in a lens shape identical to an auxiliary blank, after said auxiliary blank in the final lens shape is closely attached to both ends of the rod made from the piezoelectric material, and the surface of said auxiliary blank attached to the rod is processed by the dry etching, and then the surface of said auxiliary blank is shaved at first and next the surface of the piezoelectric material.
 17. A manufacturing method of said piezoelectric device, which makes the piezoelectric material in a lens shape with a holder identical to an auxiliary blank, after said auxiliary blank in the final lens shape is closely attached to both ends of the rod made from the piezoelectric material, and the surface of said auxiliary blank attached to the rod is processed by the dry etching, and then the surface of said auxiliary blank is shaved at first, and next the surface of the piezoelectric material is also shaved.
 18. A piezoelectric device, which is made of the first oscillation part to be able to recognize the piezoelectric crystal orientation inside a central part of said quasi square quartz blank, and furthermore made of the second oscillation part not to be able to recognize the piezoelectric crystal orientation inside a central part of the first oscillation part.
 19. A piezoelectric device, which is made of the first oscillation part not to be able to recognize the piezoelectric crystal orientation inside a central part of said quasi-square quartz blank, and furthermore made of the second oscillation part to be able to mark the piezoelectric crystal orientation at the outer region of the first oscillation part.
 20. A piezoelectric device, whose oscillation part has a pair of electrodes processed by vacuum deposit in the central surface of these vibrating parts on both sides, and which has a gold wire is led as a lead wire from each electrode. 